Ukrainian sunflowers have been

 on my mind for the past week. Sunflowers are the national flower of the Ukraine. They export great quantities of sunflower oil and sunflower seeds. The fields of sunflowers are a tourist attraction - in good times. I don't know what will happen to this year's harvest. Like so many other people though I hope...I can't give up hope.

My paternal grandfather was no gardener. The soil where they lived was so sandy that even copious amounts of compost did little to help. Somehow the sunflowers he put in along the side fence and barely cared for survived. They were tall and tough. As children my grandmother encouraged us to look at them and see how they "followed the sun". I  think we need to do that now.

My friend P.... suggested pasting sunflowers all over FB in a sign of solidarity with the Ukrainian people. P... is a skilled craftswoman. I think she could make artificial sunflowers out of anything in shades of yellow and gold and brown. I suggested a workshop where we can get people to make them. We make poppies to remind us of the horrors of war, what if we make sunflowers in the hope of peace?

Today I will raid my "stash". I have browns but I will need yellow. It isn't a colour I use a lot but there is some there, left over from the other project.  I am going to design a simple sunflower and make it. If it works I will share the pattern - so we can make them in the hope of peace.